FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Dori Jennings
(800) 301-2020 ext.105
[email protected]
Prevent Blindness Declares 2022 as “Year of Children’s Vision”
– New Initiative to Focus Year-long Efforts into Improving
Children’s Vision and Eye Health –
Columbus, OH (January 4, 2022) – Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate has declared 2022 the “Year of Children’s Vision.” The goal is to highlight and address the diverse and critical vision and eye health needs of children and to improve outcomes through advocacy, public health, education, and awareness. Common vision disorders in children include amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (crossed eyes), and refractive error, including myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism.
According to the recent report, “Children’s Vision and Eye Health: A Snapshot of Current National Issues,” from the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH), vision plays a critical role in children’s physical, cognitive, and social development. Yet, up to one in 5 young children has an undiagnosed vision disorder. Unfortunately, uncorrected vision disorders remain common, and can impair child development, interfere with learning, reduce quality of life, and even lead to permanent vision loss.
Additionally, the annual economic costs of children’s vision disorders are approximately $10 billion in the United States alone, with families shouldering a significant portion of the costs, including medical care, vision aids and devices and more.
To help address these concerns, Prevent Blindness will embark on a variety of initiatives and programs throughout the Year of Children’s Vision, including but not limited to:
- Expand our children’s vision screener certification program by training, certifying, and equipping school nurses, preschool teachers, and healthcare workers to conduct vision screenings on children ranging from preschool to high school.
- Highlight our children’s vision programming at our 2022 People of Vision Award events taking place in Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, and Cincinnati.
- Provide families, caregivers, and professionals with free educational materials and resources on a variety of eye health topics including visual disorders and eye safety recommendations.
- Continue efforts to inform and work with policymakers on opportunities to address children’s vision and eye health as part of early childhood development, education, health equity, and public health.
- Participate in a series of free webinars, hosted by the NCCVEH, including topics such as vision health of children with special needs, and workshops from the Better Vision Together community and state coalitions.
- Assist in the expansion of the reach of the NCCVEH-convened Children’s Vision Equity Alliance.
- Lead efforts to promote new research into children’s eye and vision health.
- Launch or participate in various social media campaigns on specific children’s vision topics and issues. Campaigns to include the #YOCV in posts. Followers will be asked to include the hashtag in their posts.
“In 1908, Prevent Blindness was founded as a public health agency dedicated to saving sight in newborns. Through the decades, we’ve greatly expanded our mission to address a variety of children’s vision issues, including the role that healthy vision plays in learning, health disparities and access to care for minority populations, and advocating for funding to support research and programs,” said Amy Pulles, President & CEO of the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness.
Pulles added, “We look forward to 2022 and the Year of Children’s Vision and invite all those interested in supporting this important cause to contact us today to help us provide a brighter future for our kids.”
For more information on the Year of Children’s Vision program, including sponsorship opportunities, or general children’s eye health, please contact Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate at 800-301-2020 or visit us on the web at pbohio.org.
About Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness serves all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight. For more information or to make a contribution, call 800-301-2020. Visit us on the web at pbohio.org, Facebook at facebook.com/pbohio/, or Twitter at twitter.com/PB_Ohio.
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